I am sorry folks, but the carnal thinking here is just staggering. Proper Christian thinking is that everyone else is wrong! That is why the world hates us! That is why Jesus said the world would hate us! Jesus did not say I am the way the truth and the life but I understand if you have a different perspective. No! None come to the Father except through me! None! There is a place for the work of apologetics within the church but it is not the pulpit! The Pulpit is the place for the Gospel. If you preach the Gospel two things are guaranteed to happen according the scripture. First, the believers will be fed and grow in Christlikeness. Secondly, the Holy Spirit will draw the unbelievers. I am an educated man and was so when I gave my life to Christ. I had the questions Carey Nieuwhof is telling us about. That morning in church I heard the Gospel and was drawn by the spirit. My questions did not mean anything to me at that point. My doubt and intellect meant nothing. My self-made fiefdom meant nothing. The only thing that mattered was the weight of my sin, which the Holy Spirit showed me through the preaching of the Gospel. There was going to be plenty of time later to address whatever useless questions I had been weighing myself down with. The only thing that mattered was crawling to that altar. That is the Gospel at work Carey.
"3 THINGS YOU CAN DO. Before I let you go"let me reiterate that I am firmly convinced that Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life and that I hold an orthodox view of the Christian faith.
I just think we're losing people like crazy in our new, post-modern reality. If you want to grow in this area further, try this. They're easy to understand, really hard to do, but so worth it.
Read, study and understand opposing points of view. Some of the authors/podcasters mentioned in this article are great places to start. You can't address a different point of view if you don't understand it.
Become friends with a thoughtful atheist, agnostic or someone entirely different than you. I have a few atheists and agnostics in my life I hang out with regularly. They're smart, well-read and push me to new levels of my faith and ability to articulate it that would never happen if I didn't have those relationships. I am learning loads. So, they tell me, are they.
Embrace questions. When you embrace a question, you embrace the questioner. Similarly, when you're open to hearing people, they're far more open to hearing you. Preaching isn't easy. Just ask anyone who's done it." -- Carey Nieuwhof
Interesting that Carey feels the need to make sure we understand that he does believe in Jesus as the only way. Without the indwelt Holy Spirit, I can only assume that his intellect realized that he did not sound as if he believed this. His closing three points are at odds with the belief he claims. It is just him doubling down on all of the nonsensical ideas he has given us in this article. Preacher, I give you the opposite advice. Read study and understand the Gospel. It alone is your job, strategy, and concern. Become friends with other Gospel preachers so you can support each other in these end times when the apostate church through Carey Nieuwhof will be swearing to you the opposite is true. Embrace questions from a perspective of the Gospel, not that everyone's way of thinking is equal. It is not. Some are correct, and others are not.
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We're so excited to help you become the best communicator you can be." -- Carey Nieuwhof
